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NYC Parks police told a yoga teacher to leash her dog. It got ugly.

Samantha Max

Published Oct 2, 2026

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A walker strolls with a dog on a causeway along the Hudson River in Battery Park City 04 December 2004 in lower Manhattan, New York.

Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Samantha Max

Published Oct 2, 2026

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A Manhattan yoga instructor who says New York City Parks police officers violently arrested her in the early days of the pandemic after ordering her to leash her 10-pound dog asked a federal jury this week for compensation for her injuries.

After two days of testimony and about three hours of deliberations, the jurors on Wednesday ruled against Sabrina Toner, finding that the officers did not use excessive force.

The case highlighted the social tensions in the city in the fall of 2020. COVID lockdowns and massive protests against police violence had swept the city earlier that year, and memories of both still lingered in November.

“It was a very confusing time. I was isolated and alone,” Toner testified in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

She filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that accused New York City Parks Sgt. Jonathan Martinez and Officer Steve Gauvy of using excessive force against her and failing to intervene to prevent the violence, as well as assault and battery.

Both officers and the city were named as defendants in the suit. Toner said they approached her aggressively, scared her 10-pound Italian greyhound mix Einstein, pushed her repeatedly, slammed her to the ground and restrained her with a knee to her back and neck.

“I was afraid Martinez may accidentally kill me,” she said in court. “I was afraid that [Einstein] might have gotten hit or run over by a car.”

Gregory Accarino, an attorney for the city, told jurors that Toner’s lawsuit is “frivolous” and that “you cannot avoid arrest because you bring a dog with you.”

He said the officers used a reasonable amount of force under the circumstances and also denied that either officer put a knee on Toner’s back or neck.

He said Toner “is just simply not credible.”

“Are we really in federal court because of pushes and an unleashed dog?” he asked in his closing statement.

‘I thought we could have a conversation’

Around dusk on Nov. 19, 2020, Toner was collecting leaves to press while Einstein wandered around the Woodland, a four-acre lawn within Battery Park. She lived across the street from the park at the time, and she testified that she and Einstein used to visit multiple times a day.

The yoga instructor said those trips to the Woodland served as an escape from the isolation of COVID, especially after many of her clients moved out of the city and she had to shut down her yoga studio. On that November day, she remembered the park being mostly empty. She said she was confused when two men in green jumpsuits with balaclavas on their faces started “flanking” her.

Gauvy testified in court that they wanted Toner to put a leash on her dog. He said park rules require dogs to be leashed between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Martinez had already commanded her to leash the dog several times over a loudspeaker in their patrol van, Gauvy testified. But Toner said she never heard those commands.

What happened next depends partly on whom you ask. Audio of their interaction, which Gauvy recorded on a city-issued audio recorder, was played in court. But the officers and Toner disagree about what was happening physically.

As the officers approached, Martinez repeatedly said “hello,” “excuse me,” and “ma’am,” according to the audio recording. Toner could be heard telling them to get away from her.

“You’re not a f---ing police officer,” she said, according to the recording.

Toner testified that she didn’t understand who Martinez and Gauvy were or what authority they had, because they weren’t wearing blue police uniforms and did not identify themselves as parks police officers. She said she felt intimidated. She also said she had intended to leash her dog, but she couldn’t, because Einstein was running in loops, and she thought he would bolt away if she approached too quickly.

Toner said she raised her arm to keep Martinez away for social distancing, and that her hand “made contact” with his chest as he continued to walk toward her. Her attorney described it as “a light touch,” while the city lawyer called it a “slap.” Toner, then 37, weighed 118 pounds at the time, she said.

In the audio recording, Toner can be heard cursing and insulting the officers, referring to one as an “ignorant f---” and a “small d--- piece of s---.”

“You chased my dog away, you f---ing piece of s---,” she said. “You made my dog so afraid.”

She also told the officers, “you don’t know where I’m f---ing from” and “you don’t know who I am.”

According to the officers, she tried to spit on Martinez through the mask she was wearing. Toner said she doesn’t remember doing that, but that she might have been trying to clear the mucus that frequently formed in her mouth while wearing a mask.

“I was saying a lot of things. I was being very rude,” she testified, adding through tears that she “was not proud of how I spoke.” She said she was making “defensive” statements because “my level of terror was rising.”

In the midst of this encounter, Einstein ran out of the park and Toner followed. Gauvy said he and Martinez had no reason to ticket her at that point, because the issue — her dog being off leash in the park — had been corrected.

Toner said Einstein had run across the street, through traffic, and back to her apartment building. When she found him, she said, she put his leash on, cradled him in her arms and went back to the park. She wanted more fresh air, she said, and she wanted to talk to the officers about the park rules — even though she was still angry.

“I’m a New Yorker,” she testified. “I thought we could have a conversation.”

‘This is not going to be pretty’

As Toner returned to the park, Martinez said, “She’s coming back. One under. This is not going to be pretty,” Gauvy testified. “One under,” Gauvy told jurors, meant Toner was going to be arrested if she didn’t comply.

The officer said Toner appeared “irate” as she approached. She said, “I’m going to get close to you like you got close to me,” according to the recording.

Martinez shoved her backward. After the shove, Toner looked “bewildered,” Gauvy said.

“Do it again,” she said in the recording.

Gauvy said she moved closer, and Martinez pushed her back again — twice. Toner said she was “frozen” and that he kept pushing her anyway.

Then, Martinez pulled her left arm behind her back to arrest her for disorderly conduct. Gauvy tried to get her right arm, but she was holding Einstein and cried out that she would not let go of her dog. Einstein, scared and baring his teeth, nicked her face, she said.

The officers pushed Toner against a van, she said. Gauvy testified that he took her to the ground. The dog ran off, out of sight. He was later found.

“Help me! Help me!” she screamed in the recording. “My dog! Help me!”

Toner said she hit the ground and was lying face down with her hands behind her back, unable to move. She said she felt a knee on her neck and an “immense” amount of pressure and pain on her right side. She said her face got pushed into the pavement. She said she temporarily lost her breath.

“I felt pain. I felt terrified,” she testified. “I felt so confused.”

The city contended that the officers used an appropriate amount of force to make an arrest as Toner resisted and that she was only lying down for a few seconds. Attorneys denied that Martinez or Gauvy rubbed her face on the ground or put knees on her neck or back.

Photos displayed in court showed cuts along the side of Toner’s face and dried blood streaking her temple. Her wrist appeared swollen and bruised, and bruising also appeared on her ribs and side. Doctors used medical glue to mend a cut along her head, she said.

At the emergency room that night, she said, she was nauseous and vomiting. In the days, weeks and months that followed, she said she experienced pain in her head and ribs, coughing and trouble sleeping. She wasn’t medically cleared to return to physical activity until the following March, Toner said. Attorneys shared her medical records in court.

City attorneys cast doubt on the severity of her injuries and said any wounds she may have suffered did not reflect wrongdoing by the officers.

“Just because an injury occurred does not mean the force was excessive,” Accarino said.

After the incident, Toner pleaded guilty to failing to walk her dog on a leash, while charges of disorderly conduct and failure to comply were dismissed, according to court records. She said she’s still dealing with the psychological effects of that encounter — that she’s more fearful and less trusting than she used to be.

Accarino, the city attorney, said Toner was “trying to downplay her conduct.”

“All the officers wanted was plaintiff to leash her dog,” he said.

Tagged

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public safety

Samantha Max

Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.

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